Emerson Hough (1857-1923) -
The author of some 34 books and countless magazine
articles, Emerson Hough wrote both factual accounts and historical novels
of life in the
American
West.

Hough hailed from Newton, Iowa, where he
was born on June 28, 1857 to
Joseph B. and Elizabeth Hough who had moved from their native Virginia
some five years earlier. He attended public schools in Newton and
after graduating high school in 1875, worked as a teacher in a rural
school for a time before entering the University of Iowa. He
graduated with a degree in philosophy in 1880 and then began to study
law with a firm in Newton.

After completing his studies, Emerson
moved west to White Oaks, New Mexico where he practiced law for
a time as well as working as a reporter for the local newspaper, The Golden Era.

He returned to the Midwest in 1886, where he focused on writing,
working at several newspapers in Kansas, Iowa, and Ohio as well as
writing freelance articles for several magazines. Having a love of the
outdoors including hunting and fishing, he spent much of his time
camping and writing articles. In 1889, he was hired by the Forest
and Stream magazine and later, worked for Field & Stream
and wrote and "outdoor" column for the Saturday Evening Post.

After spending time in Yellowstone in
1893 and seeing hundreds of buffalo killed, Emerson wrote a number of
articles promoting conservation, which influenced the U.S. Congress to
protect the buffalo in Yellowstone
National Park. In 1897, he
published The Story of the Cowboy and followed up with more
than 20 works on the frontier life in the American
West, gaining him a
reputation as a "western" author.

In 1897, he married Charlotte Chesebro of Chicago and the pair made Chicago their home. When World War I broke out, he served
in the Army Intelligence Division, reaching the rank of captain.
During this time, he became involved in regular correspondence
with President Theodore Roosevelt, a fellow conservationist and
outdoorsman.

Two of his novels,
The Covered Wagon
and North of Thirty-Six, were turned into screenplays and later became
popular silent films, making him one of the first Western authors to
enter into the motion picture industry.

Other notable works included the books
The Mississippi Bubble, The Way of the West, Singing
Mouse Stories, ThePassing of the Frontier, The Story of the Outlaw, and
several others.

Hough died on April 30, 1923 from
heart failure following an operation. He is buried in Evanston,
Illinois.

We
have excerpted several of Hough's stories from his many books. However,
the text as it appears on Legends of America is not verbatim, as it has
been edited for spelling, grammar, clarity, and ease of the modern reader.

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